Frustrated by a lack of informed and honest review websites covering a wide range of electronic music, I write them myself.

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Alter Ego - Transphormed

Klang Elektronik: 2005

That Roman Flügel and Jörn Elling Wuttke would take a stab at chart action was surprising enough, though understandable given everyone’s fondness for thrashy electro during the mid-‘00s. The fact they used their Alter Ego alias as a means to accomplish this however, baffled a whole pile of long-time followers. For in the decade before Rocker became a club smash, the name Alter Ego carried a pedigree of ambient techno and IDM class, their self-titled debut and follow-up Decoding The Hacker Myth some of the highlights of Sven Väth’s seminal Harthouse print (to say nothing of other popular projects like Acid Jesus and Sensorama). Not that those seeking more Rockers cared about such prestige, Alter Ego emerging fresh as the new acid sun with the album Transphormer for all they knew. It had been some time since Decoding The Hacker Myth, I’ll grant.

But that’s not the album I’m reviewing today. Oh, I had intended to get Transphormer, my Alter Ego appreciation of old none the sullied by the duo’s foray into electro-trash. The fact I saw the duo’s rebranding record for a fiver on the Amazons didn’t hurt either, figuring there were at least a few decent cuts worth the asking price. Somehow though, I instead ended up with the double-disc remix album that spun off from Transphormer’s success. At first I was all, “wait, there was a remix album from this?” And then I was all like, “well, it’s not what I ordered, but its two CDs for the price of a quarter of one, so I guess it’s fine.” But then I was feelin’ like, “Aw, dang, this is 2005 remixes, which means a bunch of dull tech-house and minimal wankery, don’t it. I don’t want to listen to this.” And in all the years since I got Transphormed, I never did.

Turns out my hunch was correct, but before the remixes of Transphormer, there’s CD1 of Transphormed, a collection of remixes that Alter Ego done did themselves. Whatever reservations I still had about their new sound are promptly vanquished here, wonderful rubs on tracks from a wide array of acts. Fashion Rules! from Chicks On Speed sounds like something LCD Soundsystem would have made, Alter Ego get deep into the electro-funk on Solvent’s Think Like Us, Octave One’s Blackwater treads near the realm of bumpin’ micro-house, and Riton’s Angerman is marching Vitalic bosh in the hands of Flügel and Wuttke. Throw in appearances from Human League, Primal Scream, and 2Raumwohnung, and you’ve a surprisingly fun CD of Alter Ego remixes. Not that I doubted it.

CD2 though, yeesh. Ultra-minimal micro-house from Isolée and Robag Wruhme. Dull tech-house from Rework and LoSoul. Noisy nonsense from Riton and Ewan Pearson. And twelve-plus minutes of minimal-plucky gibberish from Ricardo Villalobs (because of course he’d need that much time to go nowhere). At least Solvent turns in a fun electro tune with his rub, and Eric Prydz drops his impeccable anthem touch to Rocker. Bow down to your Swedish God.